By Hassan Ali, The Orient News Research Section

Today, Sudan and Ethiopia will hold negotiations to delineate their shared border. Sudan and Ethiopia carried out border demarcation talks after artificially generated clashes. It came with announcement that negotiations are to be held on 22 December 2020. Last week, Ethiopian forces killed at least four Sudanese soldiers along the border to compel both sides to sit on the negotiation table. As per the details, Ethiopian forces ambushed and killed Sudanese troops along the border. Statement from Sudanese Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok’s office formally announced on Sunday, “Sudan and Ethiopia will hold negotiations to demarcate shared border.”  Locals says Ethiopia determined to eliminate top Muslim leadership by announcing offers of reward by declaring them fugitives.  Sudan’s armed forces has said that a number of its officers were ambushed by “Ethiopian forces and militias” during a security patrol of the border region.

“During the return of our forces from combing the area around Jabal Abutiour inside the territory of Sudan, they were ambushed by Ethiopian forces and militias inside, as a result of which lives and equipment were lost,”.

The tensions are rising between Sudan and neighbor Ethiopia as Khartoum deployed significant military reinforcements along its eastern border days after an ambush attributed to Ethiopian forces. Sudanese troops are advancing on the disputed territory between Sudan and Ethiopia, amid sporadic fighting. Due to these ugly incidents the flames of wars are mounting are mounting in East Africa, if not managed prudently because the Sudanese forces continue their advances to reclaim territories controlled by Ethiopian militias along the two countries' shared border. At the start of the clashes in Tigray, Sudan deployed more than 6000 troops to its border with Ethiopia.

The attack in al-Qadarif was the latest by Ethiopian forces and militias on Sudanese troops and people over the past several months, and has strained ties between the two neighbors. The sides have held talks in recent months to encourage Ethiopian farmers to withdraw from Sudan’s al-Fashqa border area, which they have cultivated for years. Following the attack, the head of Sudan's ruling sovereign council, General Abdel-Fattah Burhan, travelled to al-Qadarif and spent three days there overseeing the deployment of heavily armed troops to the border area.

Recently, Sudan has deployed its military “large reinforcements” into al-Qadarif province to reclaim territories controlled by Ethiopian farmers and militias in Sudan's al-Fashqa border area. The troops would stop at the border line according to the 1902 deals between Sudan and Ethiopia.

Ethiopia is a landlocked country on the Horn of Africa, in the east of the continent. It is bordered by Djibouti, Eritrea, Kenya, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, and Somaliland (Somalia) or Tronvoll, solving the dispute via diplomatic means is the most reasonable and should be encouraged. “The conflict area in Ethiopia is a border area, and it’s close to Sudan, Eritrea, and South Sudan. It can impact the whole region, and the Red Sea region.” One pressure point is that Sudanese authorities, supported by the United Nations, are keen to move refugees quickly away from the border to camps, partly for fear that Tigrayan forces could use Sudan as a rear base, - Clashes along Sudan’s eastern border and the influx of tens of thousands of refugees from neighboring Ethiopia have added to the challenges faced by a country already navigating a fraught political transition and protracted economic crisis.

"Sudan follows with concern what is going on in neighboring Ethiopia. In this regard the Sudanese Defense Minister called on all parties to deal with wisdom and resort to a peaceful solution and restraint,".

The border between Ethiopia and Sudan is the scene of occasional fighting. Currently the deadly skirmishes could however complicate matters between the two countries. There have been negotiations and they reached an understanding that most or all of this contested land can be under Sudan,”. The interesting aspect is why there is new violence now and possibly also at a higher level than before. According to Sudan's military, tensions along the border between the two countries have recently heated up amid increasing attacks on Sudanese troops. Following the incident, Sudan summoned Ethiopia's envoy and urged the Ethiopian government to do all it can to end such border clashes.

The root cause of Ethiopia-Sudan border is long standing dispute between the Sudan and Ethiopia which share a common boundary that stretches over 1,600 kilometers (994 miles). The border was drawn following a series of treaties between Ethiopia and the colonial powers of Britain and Italy. However, to date, this boundary lacks clear demarcation lines. Sudan's al-Fashqa region which covers approximately 600 km, is a rich fertile land conducive for agriculture. For decades, Ethiopia has allowed its farmers to plant crops there. Former Sudanese President largely turned a blind eye to his country's territorial incursion.

However, Sudan's transitional authorities, who took over after popular protests which eventually led to the ousting of the former president. For the first time in nearly 25 years, Sudan deployed its troops along the al-Fashqa border strip at the end March. This came after an attack which prompted a top security team to visit the area." There are old problems. Herders have lost their livestock and farmers have lost their lands," Lieutenant General Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan, Chairman of Sudan's Sovereignty Council, said in an interview with the national network, Sudan TV, after touring the border region. Al-Burhan defended the troop deployment saying the armed forces were left with no choice but to protect their territory because the Ethiopians had imposed their presence.

Sudan's military has vowed that it is willing and ready to protect its citizens and territory. The border dispute could jeopardize Ethiopia’s plan to construct the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Mega Dam (GERD) project on these disputed border land. The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam GERD formerly known as the Millennium Dam and sometimes referred to as Hidase Dam is a gravity dam on the Blue Nile River in Ethiopia under construction since 2011. The dam is in the Benishangul-Gumuz Region of Ethiopia, about 15 km (9 mi) east of the border with Sudan.

The primary purpose of the dam is electricity production to relieve Ethiopia’s acute energy shortage and for electricity export to neighboring countries. With a planned installed capacity of 6.45 gigawatts, the dam will be the largest hydroelectric power plant in Africa when completed, as well as the seventh largest in the world. Filled the reservoir begun in July 2020.

Sudan is caught between the competing interests of Egypt and Ethiopia. Although Khartoum initially opposed the construction of the GERD, it has since warmed up to it, citing its potential to improve prospects for domestic development. Nevertheless, Khartoum continues to fear that the operation of the GERD could threaten the safety of Sudan’s own dams and make it much more difficult for the government to manage its own development projects. The immediate issue at stake—securing a technical agreement on the filling of the GERD’s reservoir—is among Egypt, Ethiopia, and Sudan.

Although it will increase the useful lifetime of dams in Sudan – such as the Roseires Dam, the Sennar Dam and the Merowe Dam – and of the Aswan High Dam in Egypt. The beneficial and harmful effects of flood control would affect the Sudanese portion of the Blue Nile, just as it would affect the Ethiopian part of the Blue Nile valley downstream of the dam.

Recently, Sudan wrote to the UN Security Councilto urge Ethiopia and Egypt, not to take unilateral action on the dam. Sudan had initially backed Ethiopia's project but later refused to sign on an initial agreement which would have paved the way for Ethiopia to begin filling the dam. For Ethiopia the border dispute has little to do with GERD. "Ethiopia and Sudan are holding regular discussions to prepare the ground for the resumption of trilateral GERD talks, so the process is restarting rather than stalled,”. It does not appear therefore that the border incident has caused a significant disruption to the negotiations. Sudan and Ethiopia need to ramp up their existing discussions over the borderlands in order to come to an understanding that will lead to a final resolution of the issue.

At the back drop statement of Sudanese Prime Minister and Ethiopian Prime Minister held in meeting on the sidelines of the summit of the Inter-Governmental Authority for Development.  Sudan and Ethiopia will resume meetings of the joint border committee on Dec. 22 at a time, when the border area has been witnessing security tensions. The upcoming talk of today is way forward between the heads of both countries in Sudan capital Khartoum is also a chain to resolve the crucial issue of border amicably.